Experimental Investigation of Injection Parameters on Engine Performance Using Neem Biodiesel and Optimization using Taguchi Method

Abstract

the petroleum products are in greater demand as a result of enormous increase in the number of automobiles in recent years, with estimation of crude oil reserves to last only for a few decades. Therefore, researches are being conducted to make an alternative to diesel. Transport sectors would be majorly impacted due to the depletion of crude oil. In developing the country a major significant role is played by Fossil fuels and for the sustenance and further development continuous supply of fuel with increasing rate must be ensured. The neem biodiesel can be regarded as potential feedstock for power generation. The present study was to optimize the injection parameters of the diesel engine, blends of neem biodiesel, diethyl ether additive concentration and bring out optimize set of operating variables using Taguchi method theoretically. The experimentation was carried using diesel, neem biodiesel and its blends N20D5 (20% biodiesel, 75%diesel, 5%diethyl ether additive), N20D10, N30D5, N30D10, N40D5, N40D10, N100 (pure neem biodiesel). Injectors with 3holes, 4holes and injection pressures 180 bar, 200 bar and different loading conditions (0%,20%,40%,60%,80%,100%) were used to study their effect on the performance and emissions on a single cylinder, 4stroke, naturally aspirated diesel engine. The experimental results shown that, the engine performance and emissions were better at higher set of operating variables. Taguchi method was used for optimization and analysis was carried out using “Minitab-18” statistical software. The Taguchi analysis identified that 200 bar injection pressure, nozzle hole geometry with 4 holes, 10% additive concentration under 4.16 KW of brake power (80%) were optimum parameters setting for engine brake thermal efficiency. For BSFC 180 injection pressure, 3 holes’ injector holes, 5% additive concentration, blend 40 and load 3.12KW and for emissions 200bar injection pressure, 4-hole injector, 10%additive concentration, blend 40, load of 5.2KW were optimized. It was clearly observed that, the engine performance and emissions were largely influenced by engine load, blends and least influenced by injector holes, injection pressure. Thus the present investigation shown that neem biodiesel can be used as an alternative fuel in diesel engines without significant engine modification.